This video has shed light to a lot of Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. I never heard much of their story. I knew that Gallaudet University was named after Thomas Gallaudet by his son, but that’s the extent of the story that I know. Throughout my ASL classes my professors have told me about Alice, Laurent, and Thomas, but never really how their stories collided. I never knew that Thomas’s wife was deaf either.

1) I never realized how much Thomas accomplished before teaching Alice. I always knew he had done a bunch of little things, but I never put two and two together. I knew he had gone to school, but I didn’t know all the things that he had done before ever meeting Alice.

2) I didn’t know Laurent Clerc leaving France was a huge deal. In the video, it shows that when he was trying to leave, he was receiving a lot of backlash. I thought it was a one and done decision. I never knew he had doubts on coming to America. I also didn’t know that he only had a plan to be in America for three years, and ended up staying much longer.

3) I didn’t know Thomas Gallaudet had health issues. In the very beginning of the, they touched on Gallaudet having issues with his health. They touched on it every now and then throughout the video, but never quite explained beyond a cough.